Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
RUDDY MESS
In confession on UC Charity: She is listening to evidence Words just a start.. we need action
mother and split from her husband. The housing crisis hit and the family home sold for less than they hoped.
Her mental health faltered while daughter Emily, 17, also fell ill and Karen had to leave her job to look after her.
She used up her savings and began self-harming, carving the words “failure” into her skin. She thought of suicide. “I felt my daughter would be better off last year, up from 61,000 in 2010/11. The charity has long been insisting that UC has caused the huge rise.
Chief executive Emma Revie said: “It’s promising to see the Secretary of State is listening to the evidence of foodbanks across the UK.
“Universal Credit isn’t the povertyfighting reform that was promised. without me around,” admits Karen. “The debts were racking up at an impossible rate and I was served an eviction notice.
“Poverty can happen to anyone, in any position, at any time. All it requires is a chain of unfortunate events.”
Emily, doing A-levels, says she and her mum were often left with £2 a week after bills. When her school held a non-uniform day for a kids’ charity, her mates each What we need now is action to address the reasons why [UC] has forced some people to foodbanks.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The Conservatives have now admitted Universal Credit has left even more people reliant on foodbanks, so why haven’t they stopped the roll-out?” Top Tories have spent
MILLIONS of jobseekers, low-waged parents and the sick and disabled are being moved on to the new Universal Credit system which replaces six benefits.
It takes over Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Employment Support Allowance and Housing Benefit. UC was launched in 2013 by Tory Iain Duncan gave a quid but Emily could not afford to. “I could tell they thought I was selfish by not wanting to part with a pound for a disadvantaged child,” she says. “No one knew that might have been me.”
Daniel Burba, 25, reveals how at 13 he was lured into selling drugs on his estate. “You’re so afraid of what will happen to you if you don’t,” he says. Daniel also rails against the box-ticking culture he years refusing to accept the welfare changes – launched in 2013 and still being rolled out – were linked to the huge rise in people going to foodbanks.
Theresa May said in 2017 there were “many Smith supposedly to make work pay. But at the same time the Tory government cut billions of pounds from benefits, which made it less generous than its design.
Three-quarters of claimants struggled with bills and rent arrears soared £115 a head in two trial zones.
Those cuts have now largely been reversed after changes in the most recent Budget. Last year, the feels riddles the system, adding: “Treat me as you would want to be treated; see me as a person, not a number.”
And he accuses the Government of fuelling a race where the “rich get richer and the poor get poorer”.
Local headmistress Siobhan Collingwood says: “These are not extreme examples – this is the reality of daily life for too many in our community.” complex reasons” why people used them. And Ms Rudd’s predecessor Esther Mcvey previously tried to blame the surge on Labour.
Two influential MPS probing the use of foodbanks, Tory Heidi Allen and independent Labour
then Work and Pensions Secretary, Esther Mcvey, finally admitted some people “will be worse off” by £200 a month.
UC is expected to finish its roll-out in December 2023. The Tories have warned they will not be going back on the system. But current Work Secretary Amber Rudd may at least now take a second look. SO, finally, the Government has admitted the link between foodbanks and Universal Credit – six years after it became obvious to everyone else.
Six years ago, I visited the test areas of Oldham, Tameside, Warrington and Wigan to find foodbanks inundated by claimants. I remember seeing one man in Oldham with his head in his hands, saying: “Five weeks before my kids can eat?”
I met couple Tony Carson and Sue Rimmington in November, forced to live in a tent on the York flood plain after losing their health and jobs.
I’ve spoken to dying cancer patients living in squalor during chemo and a man with mental health problems living on bags of biscuits from Poundland.
Yet for six years the rollout has continued, like a slowrolling tank division of misery.
And, despite Amber Rudd’s words, another 10,000 people will move across to the sinking Tory flagship in July.
Admitting they did wrong is a first step. But if the Tories are serious about stopping the hostile environment of UC they will halt the roll-out until it is fixed. Amber Rudd should know that actions speak louder than words. MP Frank Field, say Ms Rudd may be set to make major changes to UC.
Mr Field predicted Ms Rudd will halt the roll-out of UC before 2023, which is the Tories’ deadline for having the system fully operational.
Ms Allen said: “It’s changing with Amber... She is listening.” And she called for an end to the “fundamental flaws” of the welfare system.
The PM’S spokesman said: “We have long acknowledged there were issues with the initial roll-out.”
The DWP said: “We’ve always said there are many reasons people use foodbanks and you cannot link to any one cause.
We’ve responded quickly to the feedback we have had on UC and made numerous improvements.”